Technical Specifications and Recommended Pricing

Performance

The testing methodology and testbed configuration were exactly the same as with Corsair H100 reviewed recently. Just to sum up the main details I would like to repeat that the room temperature at the time of tests was 24.5-24.8°C. We ran all tested inside a closed Antec Twelve Hundred system case with good internal air flow. Since at minimal fan rotation speed Corsair H80 couldn’t cope with the CPU overclocked to the same level as under Corsair H100 (4.375 GHz, 1.41875 V), we ended up overclocking our six-core processor only to 4.3 GHz with 1.39375 V Vcore. Therefore, we also tested the H100 system in the same mode for comparison purposes. As usual, we added the results of our reference air cooler – Thermalright Archon, as well.

I would also like to add that besides three default fan modes supported by Corsair H80, we also tested this system in the entire rotation speed range of its fans with 200 RPM increments (±10 RPM). We used our special in-house controller to adjust the speed.

Well, here are the cooling efficiency test results:

Corsair H80 behaves as a compact liquid-cooling system should. We clearly see that the cooling efficiency depends significantly on the rotation speed of the radiator fans and the extent of the radiator cooling. We see the highest cooling efficiency increase in the interval from 1000 to 1600 RPM, where the maximum temperature of the hottest processor core drops 14°C. In the interval from 1600 to 2200 RPM the temperature drops another 5°C, and at 2200 RPM and higher rotation speeds – by only 3°C more. The temperatures in the three preset rotation speed modes are practically the same as declared in the official specifications.

The competition between the two Corsair systems turned out pretty interesting. At the first fan speed setting H100 wins 5°C from the less expensive counterpart, which is not surprising because its thinner radiator is easier to cool than a thicker radiator of the H80, even with two fans on the latter. At the same time, when we get to the second fan rotation speed setting, H80 catches up and the difference lowers to only 1°C, while at the third fan speed setting the junior Corsair H80 manages to get 2°C ahead. It means that the cooling efficiency of Corsair H80 is even more dependent on the fan rotation speed than H100. Moreover, as we remember from our previous review, H100 may accommodate two additional fans, which will boost its cooling efficiency up to the level of Thermalright Archon, and the same trick won’t work on H80.

I can’t help mentioning that Corsair H80 is defeated by the best air cooler, and this defeat is overwhelming. Thermalright Archon with a single TY-140 fan at 810 RPM is as efficient as Corsair H80 with both its 120 mm fans rotating at 1600 RPM. At the still very quiet speed of 1000 RPM on Archon cooler, it competes with H80 at 2000 RPM of both its fans, and so on and so forth.